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Sunday, October 9, 2016

I Created Donald Trump

Being from New York, I've known for years that Donald Trump
is little more than a carnival barker in an expensive suit. Most New Yorkers
know this. Even though most of New York consistently votes Republican, (more
people who vote democratic live in NYC than in the rest of the state combined,
so as goes "the City", so goes the state), we all know that Trump is
little more than a self-aggrandizing hump that lives to trumpet his own worth.

Make no mistake, New York has its share of rednecks, tea
party knuckleheads and people simply fed up with the status quo, just like the
rest of the country. I lived for more than fifteen years in a town completely
run by one party, rife with false patriotism, flags everywhere and an earnest
population that thinks they are part of the "real America". And, we
still thought Donald Trump was a joke.

A joke, however, that says what some people think.

Politicians have to say what we want to hear. If they
actually say what they think, or speak the way some people really speak, we
have been conditioned to clutch at our collective pearls and be shocked.
Shocked, I say!

After decades of expecting our leaders to pander to our ears,
and play footsie with our fears, we have the audacity, the utter gall, to be
shocked when a guy like Donald Trump says what he thinks.

What he says is reprehensible, but not all that different
from the way many people think. Don't believe me? Take a ride through any
neighborhood and count the "Trump" signs. Trump says what his
supporters want to hear. He says what they say to each other.

They say the things that political correctness and common
sense dictate cannot, or at least should not, be said. They say things that
they said when they were young, before they grew old enough to know better.
They say things that are marginalized, pushed down and shunned in our
"enlightened" discourse.

But, they can only be pushed aside for so long before they
return, often ferociously. They have come roaring back in a cloud of
half-truths and demagoguery that even Tea Party pundits could only dream about.

And, it's all my fault.

I created Donald Trump. I allowed my country to be the kind
of place where the news and social media can manufacture controversies like the
dentist & the lion and Harambe while real things like Brexit and Wells
Fargo are allowed to fester until they are so far gone that there is nothing
anyone can do about it.

I created Donald Trump. I allowed my country, since Reagan's
first election, to be divided by the religious right and to fall into the trap
of playing people against each other while the plutocrats line their pockets.

I created Donald Trump. I have been alarmed when political bullies
like Carl Paladino or Paul LePage make racism or demagoguery mainstream, yet I
do not call for their complete and utter ouster from public life. Some people
like them, I think. Some people believe in them. Some people, as in LePage's
case, actually voted for him. So, I shake my head and move on with my life,
comfortable in the hope that "someone" will deal with it.

I created Donald Trump. I allow myself to click on the link
promising to show me the "shocking" thing this celebrity or that
celebrity has done. I have allowed our media to dismiss the logical for the
fantastical. I have not stood up and said "No More!" when evolution
and creationism are talked about as if they are equal in merit.

I have stood by and watched, my mouth full of aerosol cheese
and Slim Jims, while the best and brightest of us get shouted down, only to be
replaced by calls for ColinKaepernick's
head and Kanye 2020.

I have created this monster. Or, at least, I have allowed
this to happen. But, and you knew this was coming, didn't you? I didn't do this
alone. Nope. You were right there alongside me. Whether you were clutching your
pearls or cheering him on, you and I created Donald Trump. Together. Not the
guy, of course, but, the kind of environment where someone who says the kinds
of things he says can flourish and grow.

We did it. Maybe you're not sorry. I am. Maybe you are. It
doesn't matter. He's here now. And don't think for a minute that Donald Trump
is the problem. If it wasn't him it wouldn't be someone just like him. Someone
would have filled that void. Someone would have flourished in the environment
we've created.

I'm not shouting into the vacuum, asking, "What will he
do if he's elected?" I'm looking into a mirror and asking, "What have
you done?"

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About Me

Finished filming an original Anti-bullying Halloween themed video for kids K-4 called "A Caterpillar's Tale" in between original video productions like Noodle Boosters, (www.noodleboosterstore.com) and "Inside the Bubble" (www.jdsavage.com).

Finished my first original independent short film, "Bagels & Roles" (http://bit.ly/1ru6PVm) and am currently working on my first serious play. In between, I've painted a bunch of stuff which you can see by perusing around in my photos. Hoping to connect with and follow people more talented than me, from whom I can learn... 'cause really, isn't that the whole point?Part of the original G+ invite only beta.